Apple is developing a device to improve your breathing

The Apple Watch has changed many people's health habits. Indeed, Apple has worked to allow us to easily track our heart rate, our sleep, and even daily physical activity. But what about breathing?

Apple already offers the applicationBreathe sur l’Apple Watch, an app that offers you breathing and mindfulness exercises. The Apple firm now wants to go further on this theme, as we learn from a new patent that it has just filed. The objective is toconsiderably improve the monitoring of our respiratory health.

Breath monitoring more precise than ever

Apple's patent describes ainnovative systemwhich analyzes a user's breathing parameters during a guided breathing exercise. It includes an optical sensing device capable of detecting movements of the user's torso and generating signals indicating these movements.This special device will probably be in the form of a belt or headband, equipped with sensors.

Concretely, the idea here is that the Apple Watch or iPhone guides the user through a series of personalized breathing exercises. At the same time, the device measures the user's following of breathing instructions in real time. Imagine the app asks you to inhale for 4 seconds, then exhale for 4 seconds. The system will analyze the movements of your torso to check if you are following this rhythm.

If you inhale for 3 seconds instead of 4, for example, the app alerts you and helps you get back into a regular rhythm. This is what we calladherence to rhythm. Agrip metricwill therefore indicate, in the form of a percentage or score, to what extent you managed to follow the recommended breathing rhythm during the session. This feature will allow users to ensure they are performing the exercises correctly and get immediate feedback on their performance.

As a reminder, an inspiration longer than the exhalation results in aexcessive activation of the sympathetic nervous system(stress response), which causes an imbalance in the central nervous system.

Customized breathing profiles for each user

One of the most interesting aspects of this patent lies in the notion ofbreathing profile. Each profile includes target goals that you attempt to achieve during the session, such as overall respiratory rate, depth of breathing, time of inhalation, exhalation and breath retention. Everything can be personalized according to individual needs and goals.